The Personality Types That Make The Highest (And Lowest) Salaries
Introverts, brace yourselves.
There are many factors that contribute to the amount of money you make — privilege, ambition, experience, field, connections, just to name a few — but how about your personality?
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A recent report from Truity Psychometrics set out to learn how our personalities affect the amount of bread we bring home.
According to the famous Myers-Brigg Type Indicator, which tests behavioral binaries, there are a total of 16 distinctive personality types (ENFPs represent!).
With an extensive list of questions, the Myers-Briggs tests you on each of the four dimensions of personality type:
- Extraversion vs. Introversion: one’s style of managing and replenishing personal energy
- Sensing vs. Intuition: one’s style of gathering and processing information
- Thinking vs. Feeling: one’s style of prioritizing personal values
- Judging vs. Perceiving: one’s style of organizing and structuring daily life and work
Using this test, Truity surveyed a representative sample of 25,759 people about their personality and work history, and compiled the results in a report loaded with colorful infographics.
The results, published in Personality Type & Career Achievement, aren't suggesting that there's no escaping the fate laid out by our personality types; they merely show that people with certain personality types are more likely than others to be more successful — in terms of both money and level of satisfaction — in the workplace.
Here's how certain personality types perform on the income scale (sorry, introverts):
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Another poll showed that ESFJ (Extraversion, Sensing, Feeling, Judging) people are the most satisfied with their jobs, while introverts, again, scored a little lower than them in this category.
Individuals with the ENTJ (Extroverted, Intuitive, Thinking, Judging) type, who tend to be natural leaders, earn the most money, on average, though ISTJ (Introversion, Sensing, Thinking, Judging) people perform better than most.
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So why do introverts tend to make less money? The authors think that it may have to do with the fact that they are less inclined than extroverts to take managerial jobs. They also note that self-reported job satisfaction does not necessarily trend upwards with career success because, as the test shows, people prioritize their personal values differently, depending on if they are "thinkers" or "feelers." Overall, though, the study found that the lower people score in agreeableness, the more money they make. This is really making me lose faith in the whole "what goes around comes around" idea.
But — and yes, there's a "but" — keep in mind that many psychiatrists don't really rely on the Myers-Briggs system, because they don't think it's that scientific. So don't get too down on yourselves, introverts. You can clearly still be successful.
The disparities between certain personality types are so clear, though, that they must say something about workplace dynamics.
"When the average income for ENTJ types is over twice that of INTP types, it is hard to imagine that personality type is meaningless," the authors write.
Some of us are more inclined to take risks, while others would rather take the safe route. Some of us want to keep our jobs while we raise our children, while others would rather give all their time to their children. Our personality types must, at least in part, contribute to how far and in what direction we go on our respective career paths.
(h/t Mic)
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Emi Boscamp is the former News Editor at mindbodygreen. She received a BA in English and minors in Spanish and Art History from Cornell University. She's a writer living in Manhattan and enjoys cooking, eating, traveling, and writing about all three of those things. She loves anything pickled. And anything punny. (She's kind of a big dill.)